Friday 26th July 2019 saw the first music train on the South Fylde Line since November 2010. Passengers gave great reviews and positive feedback for the music train to launch the 2019 St. Annes Music & Arts Festival.
Alan Pill on guitar with Tony Benedict on vocals – Simon Clarke
Tony Benedict and Alan Pill played to a packed out pacer on the 17:34 Preston to Blackpool South service on Friday evening. The event, organised by Community Rail Lancashire and the St. Annes Music Festival was kindly supported by Northern the local train operator.
The duo played live and faultlessly nestled in at the front of the two car pacer unit (142078) for passengers bound for Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Blackpool South. Passengers boarding looked at little perplexed at hearing the sweet sounds of music issuing from the pacers doors and windows. Once on board they were greeted with hits from the 60s and a recently written track for the Music Festival.
Videographer Nodrog (Gordon Head) was on board to record the events for his vlog site and this can be seen at https://www.nodrogvlogs.uk/. A short video has been uploaded to YouTube and this can be seen below:
https://youtu.be/0PQ8CZHVaCc
Also see recent news item https://www.communityraillancashire.co.uk/news/south-fylde-music-train/ for more details.